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Following Silvio Berlusconi’s threat to demolish Mario Monti’s government, Italy will try to sell up to four billion euros of five- and 10-year bonds at auction today. It will get away but investors could be forgiven for being nervous. Monti was in Madrid yesterday and issued a veiled plea for Spain to seek help from the euro zone rescue fund, which would trigger ECB bond-buying, in the hope that would drive down Italian borrowing costs too. But Spain, with nearly all of its 2012 funding done, is in no hurry.

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Greece announced late yesterday that it would need a bridging loan to tide it over until it finds the nearly 12 billion euros of spending cuts demanded by the EU/IMF/ECB troika of inspectors, after which the next tranche of bailout money can flow, probably in September. The troika is due to return next week. There’s no doubt Athens will get the interim money. Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the group of euro zone finance ministers, said last week that nobody should fret about Greece’s finances in August. They would be shored up.